ICOLLEGE ANNOUNCEMENTS

What is the Announcements tool?

The Announcements tool is a versatile and effective way to communicate with students in iCollege. It facilitates engagement by allowing instructors to post frequent and regular communication to all students enrolled in a course, including important updates and announcements for students to see upon entering the course. These announcements are only visible in iCollege and are not emailed to students unless students modify their notification preferences. Announcements are fully integrated with iCollege.

How to Access Announcements:

The Announcement tool is available to all iCollege courses as a part of the learning management system. You can access it through the Announcement widget on your iCollege course homepage or via the Course Administration page.

Key Features:

Course Page Widget
User Friendly
Customizable text font, size, and color of text
Supports files attachments
Allows insertion of Quicklinks
Fosters engagement
Replacement Strings
Can be pinned and reordered

See What Announcements Can Do:

Use Announcements to keep students informed of upcoming events or deadlines.
In the first weeks of class, use announcements to welcome students, introduce yourself as the instructor and give quick access to contact preferences.
Celebrate student success and important events that may be of interest to your students.
Engage students by posting frequent and regular communication.
Create highlights for the upcoming week.
Provide students with additional information or resources that will help them achieve course outcomes.
Inform students of unexpected changes.
Provide general assignment feedback.
Engage students by offering helpful hints or extra credit opportunities.

FAQs

Do students receive notifications when an Announcement is published?

Students will not automatically get an email notification when new announcements are posted. Students can update their personal notification settings via the Notifications link in iCollege or the Pulse app. If an announcement is urgent, you may want to send an email to your classlist in addition to posting the announcement.

How do I make an Announcement private or only available for a select group of students?

By default, announcements are public and can be seen by all students enrolled in the course. However, you can choose to add Release Conditions so that only selected students can see it based on chosen criteria.

Can I schedule an Announcement?

When you create an announcement, you can choose to schedule it for a future date and time. This is a great way to keep your students informed of upcoming events or deadlines.

Can students see dismissed announcements in Brightspace?

Yes, dismissing an announcement does not delete the announcement; it dismisses the announcement for you. Your students can still see that announcement when they log in. Students can dismiss but not delete announcements from their profile.

Can I copy Announcements from one iCollege course to another?

Yes, Announcements that are created as a part of one iCollege course can be copied when course content is copied into another course.

What types of student analytics are available?

There is no direct way to track if students have read an announcement in iCollege.

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News and Announcements in iCollege

CETLOE Support

Workshops and Webinars
Throughout the year, CETLOE offers instructor workshops on iCollege Announcements and other learning tools. Please check the workshop schedule for instructor workshops.

If you’d like to request a custom workshop for your class on using the Announcement tool, please fill out the Custom Workshop Set-up form.

Learning Technologists

Georgia State Faculty can request help from our CETLOE Learning Technologists for assistance with any of the GSU Supported Digital Learning Tools.

For the fastest response to your questions, please email [email protected] or call 404-413-HELP to submit a help ticket.

By submitting a help ticket, you can be sure that your questions are directed to the appropriate team members, ensuring that you get the help you need, when you need it.

For help using iCollege Announcements to support your teaching, request a digital teaching tool consultation through the faculty help request.